A few weeks ago, I sat in a briefing for my job about all of the laws, executive orders and warnings related to immigrants that have been introduced by the Trump administration since January. As I heard the names of the laws being quoted to the group, such as “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” and “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorist and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” I felt my body sink into deep shame and embarrassment. These laws are framed under the guise of fighting antisemitism, but, in fact, are ways to silence political dissent and target immigrants, often specifically Arab and Muslim immigrants.
Trump is not the first person or entity to use “fighting antisemitism” as a smokescreen to implement political maneuvers that have nothing to do with the safety and future of Jewish people.
The shame I felt was visceral. I was the only rabbi and one of very few Jews in this room. At one point, I wanted to stand up and scream; no clue what would come out of my mouth but something like “STOP TALKING ABOUT US. JUST BE QUIET AND STOP TALKING ABOUT JEWS!” I am so tired of our identity being used to oppress others and being used as justification to take away people’s due process rights. I am tired of separating ourselves and our experiences as Jews from the experiences of other marginalized groups. I feel we must look at this moment with more honesty about how we came to it; both with regard to how the Christian nationalist agenda has manipulated Jewish trauma and with regard to the role in which the Jewish community has played in the demonization of political activists.
Just a couple months after Oct. 7, 2023, I sat down and had coffee with a friend, also Jewish, that I had met while living in Jerusalem. She said something that has stuck with me:
What is happening in Gaza is not complicated, it is just horrible. But the topic of the Jewish people is complicated.
I understood her words as referring to how complex it is to navigate the pain of how Jews are discussed in the public sphere in relation to Israel, antisemitism and Palestinians. And what she said is reflected directly in what we are seeing now; Jewish pain and trauma being used by the political right. Donald Trump is not the first person or entity to use “fighting antisemitism” as a guise to implement political maneuvers that have nothing to do with the safety and future of Jewish people.
We have seen a recent increase in those recognizing and opposing the ways Jews and antisemitism are being weaponized and manipulated. For example, in the past week, a group of mainstream Jewish organizations came out with this statement critiquing how antisemitism is being weaponized to diminish democratic freedom. I am glad that we are beginning to awaken to this reality that has been a long-standing project of the Christian nationalist movement. But it is crucial that we also recognize the ways in which our community — the Jewish community — has actively demonized protesters, including Jewish protesters who support Palestinian freedom. The ability to demonize protesters on a federal level under the guise of “fighting antisemitism” is emotionally backed by years of labeling advocates for Palestinian freedom as “antisemites” and “terrorists.”
Jews are being used by those in political power, but we must also acknowledge the internal workings of our community that have allowed for pro-Palestinian activists to be picked out as “acceptable” people to target. Our communal institutions have played a role in this, alongside Christian nationalists and other pro-Israel lobbies such as AIPAC. Pro-Palestinian activists have been presented as unsympathetic characters, making them easy people to deprive of democratic rights. Have Jews somehow come to be the minority that the political right can see in a sympathetic way? This alone should make us concerned about how we are being discussed, not out of deep care for our well-being but because we are convenient pawns in a larger fascist vision rooted in Christian nationalism. We would be naive to believe that they will not come for us next or that it has not already begun.
For years, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest pro-Israel lobby in the United States, has presented an agenda in support of “Jewish self-determination” while in reality being both deeply antisemitic and Islamophobic. For example, Christian Zionist theology includes getting all Jews to Israel, which will bring about the End Times, and ultimately, Jews will be killed unless they accept Jesus as their Lord and savior. Trump is using the Jewish people, and Trump is also a willing participant in having his platform used by a Christian nationalist project that leaves no room for Jews or any other minority group, religious or otherwise. Christian nationalism existed as a movement long before Trump, and it has happily used this political moment as an opportunity to further their agenda. Ultimately, the future of the Jewish people should take no comfort in viewing any of these people as our “friends.” Friends want us to live in freedom, dignity and comfort, not be destroyed and forced to convert. Friends don’t manipulate our emotions for their own political gains.
Our demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters is used as an excuse to create a world where all of us will have less freedom to speak out on all sorts of political and social issues.
A political vision that only holds up a semblance of democracy for some is not a political vision that we can take comfort in as marginalized people. Palestinians and activists in support of their freedom are the primary victims of this particular moment in terms of silencing political activism with threats or actual surveillance, abductions, imprisonment and deportations, but this political reality will ultimately lead to a much more antisemitic world in the future. I want to be clear that I am not blaming our community alone for how we are being used. That is led by the malicious action of the political right. I am saying, however, that we must acknowledge the way our community’s often uncomplex reactions to critiques of Israel has now been weaponized by the right to attack free speech and democracy in the United States. And we must be honest about our role in that. Our demonization of pro-Palestinian protesters is used as an excuse to create a world where all of us will have less freedom to speak out on all sorts of political and social issues.
The video of Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk being snatched up in broad daylight by ICE agents in plain clothes due to writing an op-ed in her student newspaper will forever haunt me. It should haunt all of us. I can only imagine how terrified she felt as she was surrounded and abducted by state forces. The vilification of campus activists for Palestine as anti-Jewish is a very dangerous binary way for us to view the world. Was there antisemitism in some activism last year on college campuses? Of course. Antisemitism is a systemic issue. There is racism, sexism, homophobia and so on in all spaces because they are systemic problems. And so, too, with antisemitism. Critique of Israel can at times be rooted in antisemitism, but to claim critique of Israel as inherently antisemitic lacks critical thinking and a broader understanding of state structures. To generalize the entire movement for Palestinian freedom as antisemitic is a weaponization of antisemitism that has been implemented by large swaths of the Jewish community and makes it harder to be heard when we see truly antisemitic practices. The existence of interpersonal oppression should never be used to clamp down on free speech and protest in an active democracy.
We must be able to think critically. It is the only thing that will save us. We have to be able to distinguish between critique of a nation-state (Israel) and malicious intent towards the Jewish people. We even have to recognize that the campus protests are not a mirror to what is happening in the Gaza Strip. Whether or not you agree with the pro-Palestinian protests on campuses should have nothing to do with our reckoning of how Palestinians on the ground of Israel-Palestine are treated; with ongoing horrific bombardment of Gaza, demolition of homes in the West Bank and the thousands of people that have been killed by Israel. If we are not able to have sympathy for Gazans because of feelings of discomfort with campus protesters, then our ability to think critically has already rapidly dissipated. And once again, Palestinians bear the largest brunt of this political manipulation as Israel bombards Gaza killing more than 50,000 Palestinians while the world does little to stop this.
In these moments in which Jews are political pawns, one of the most important things we can do is to think. It sounds simple, but I have seen less and less of it as we sit with the horrific events and aftermath of Oct. 7. Throughout history, we have seen what happens when our ability to think critically dissipates. We do not have to look far back into history to see how Jews were primary targets of violence when critical thinking was discouraged. And we can also look to our ancient prophetic texts such as Jeremiah, where we are warned of the dangers of not investigating issues for ourselves. We see what happens to our society when we fail to do so. In Jeremiah 6:16, we read:
“Stand by the roads and consider. Inquire about ancient paths: Which is the road to happiness? Travel it and find tranquility for yourselves. But they said, “We will not.”
We are taught in our tradition to continuously assess our moral compass both communally and individually. When we lean into binary ways of thinking, we allow our emotional experiences to be manipulated. We must hold onto a vision of the world that allows for all people to be free, for political dissent to be allowed and for all systems of supremacy to be uprooted.
